THE VIRTUAL ACADEMY - A SIMULATED ENVIRONMENT FOR CONSTRUCTIONIST LEARNING

The Virtual Academy is an educational model based on multiage teams of students and adults working through the Internet to build and use vir tual worlds for educational purposes. These collaborations are mediate d by a range of tools ranging from electronic mail to hypermedia and v ideo links, and result in the creation of simulation-based role-playin g adventure games within the ExploreNet software environment. ExploreN et is an lnternet-based multimedia, multiuser domain constructed speci fically for educational experimentation. This article describes the Vi rtual Academy Model, the ExploreNet software system, and an experiment conducted in the spring of 1995. The article describes the evolution of features of ExploreNet's user interface and their relevance to coll aborative work by children.